Rosa Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 With it being Nutcracker season, I'm curious to know what version or versions of the grand pas de deux are Ballet Talkers' favorite -- would never grow tired of watching. There are so many out there... I personally like the versions by Baryshnikov, Nureyev, Vainonen, and Petit. Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Sir Peter Wright's. Link to comment
Hans Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Mary Day's version is my favourite, but I also like Wright's. Link to comment
toeprints Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Nureyev's version. Breathtaking! When he tossed Merle Park into the air - twice - I was in shock. His entire choreography was the best and most exciting that I've ever seen. Link to comment
Lidewij Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 The Vainonen version for me, please. Link to comment
atm711 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 My favorite Grand Pas goes back many years to the first version I saw,--the Ballet Russe version staged by Alexandra Fedorova. It was a truncated version, to say the least, and done on a shoe string--but, that Grand Pas has remained with me all these years and I have warm memories of Danilova and Krassovska. I loved the choreography and I generally wince when I see other versions to that glorious music. Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 That's my favorite, too, probably because it was the first one I learned. It's based pretty faithfully on the Ivanov, and funnily, it uses a cut in the "big music" because that section was devoted to "stage magic" in the original, only I think that they cut the wrong eight bars. The third restatement of the theme, with the woodwind arpeggios and crashing cymbals is much grander than the version that BR used. Also, the original SPF, Antonietts dell'Era was described by Petipa as "Madame no good"! But she could do pirouettes into arabesque, so that's why there are so many of those packed tightly together. Because she was not at the top of her technique and strength, having been dancing (and singing!) in comic operas for the years leading up to the new ballet, her technical material is relatively easy, so a ballerina can concentrate on perfection. Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 My favorite Grand Pas goes back many years to the first version I saw,--the Ballet Russe version staged by Alexandra Fedorova. It was a truncated version... That's my favorite, too... Interesting that Fedorova's was my first thought to the original question. I've said many times how fond I am of this version, for which is the one I grew up with. (Actually, tomorrow I will see it, in its CCBM re-incarnation). The thing is, I often wondered why was its grand adagio score chopped off in its most beautiful climax, so when I saw Sir Peter Wright's-(which is basically the same one, PLUS the missing bars, PLUS that lovely passage of the ballerina being carried on pointe on top of the musseline wrap)-..well, then I loved it even more. Interesting too, the music is still chopped off in Cuba, so it is in the CCBM's version. Talk about being faithful to the past! Fedorova's in Havana. CNB. Lorna Feijoo and Osmay Molina Fedorova's in Miami. CCBM. Jordan Elizabeth Long and Miguel Angel Blanco http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQIc-G5GGQY Sir Peter Wright's . Dowel and Collier Fonteyn and Somes, at the very end of the clip. Link to comment
atm711 Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Ballet Theatre also did this version as a divertissement with the likes of Markova, Hightower and Alonso. Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Right, and it's written out in letterpress form in Dolin's book, Pas de Deux: The Art of Partnering. Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Nina Novak Ballet also uses Fedorova's version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XObCPPacm8 Link to comment
Paul Parish Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Thanks, Christian for those links -- I'm particularly grateful for the Fonteyn one (and Feijoo -- as you know I adore her)... The Fonteyn is new to me , and very interesting: I love the way she does the flourishes, there's something Spanish to them (and of course she is a Fontes, it's her birthright), her hands are like flowers, she's not embarrassed by the personal emphasis the phrasing calls for but understands that it's what the public deserves, she should be WONDERFUL! The interview with Shearer, ABOUT her is worth something, too. Wonder what this is a clip FROM? My favorite Grand Pas goes back many years to the first version I saw,--the Ballet Russe version staged by Alexandra Fedorova. It was a truncated version... That's my favorite, too... Interesting that Fedorova's was my first thought to the original question. I've said many times how fond I am of this version, for which is the one I grew up with. (Actually, tomorrow I will see it, in its CCBM re-incarnation). The thing is, I often wondered why was its grand adagio score chopped off in its most beautiful climax, so when I saw Sir Peter Wright's-(which is basically the same one, PLUS the missing bars, PLUS that lovely passage of the ballerina being carried on pointe on top of the musseline wrap)-..well, then I loved it even more. Interesting too, the music is still chopped off in Cuba, so it is in the CCBM's version. Talk about being faithful to the past! Fedorova's in Havana. CNB. Lorna Feijoo and Osmay Molina Fedorova's in Miami. CCBM. Jordan Elizabeth Long and Miguel Angel Blanco http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQIc-G5GGQY Sir Peter Wright's . Dowel and Collier Fonteyn and Somes, at the very end of the clip. Link to comment
carbro Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Here's a shocker: My favorite is Balanchine's, even tho it doesn't have a male variation (which I regret). There isn't much in ballet that's more thrilling than the supported pirouette into the backbend on the crescendo. Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Fedorova's again...by Bejart's ballet... Link to comment
Hans Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Quite a surreal performance...as if Odile decided to drop by Confiturembourg! Link to comment
MakarovaFan Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 I love Baryshnikov's Nutcracker PDD. I overlook the unnecessary inclusion of Drosselmeyer and focus on the magnificent music, the lovely choreography and the magic Misha-Gelsey chemistry. Also, I hate to admit it, but I also like Grigorovich's. It's pedestrian, as so much of his work is, but Vasiliev's and Maximova's gifts raise it to a beautiful level. Link to comment
Cygnet Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 . . . Also, I hate to admit it, but I also like Grigorovich's. It's pedestrian, as so much of his work is, but Vasiliev's and Maximova's gifts raise it to a beautiful level. I agree. Grigorovich's "Nutcracker' pdd was just one of their show-stoppers. Grigorovich's version was child's play for them. In Misha's version, Drosselmeyer intruded, and in Grigorovich's version the corps intruded. But this didn't matter. Only Katya and Volodya could clock in +10 min. ovations after the adage, and in between the variations and the coda. There was such kinetic energy in Maximova's languid, then lightening fast series of piourettes, you could feel it. She gathered such momentum at the end of the adage . . . they were awesome. They were the music. I can only imagine how they would have interpreted the Ivanov pdd had they had the opportunity. Hans wrote: Quite a surreal performance...as if Odile decided to drop by Confiturembourg! Bejart's version: ( ?) IMO it's not the version that you can take your children and grandparents to see. The pdd is beautifully danced but it seems so out of "context" with the rest of his conceptualization. I think that a black tutu is visually at odds with the delicate chimes of a celeste, but I think that was his aim. The ballerina isn't supposed to be the SPF. Link to comment
Mireille Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 I recently saw on youtube with Noella Pontois and Denis Ganio and I was wondering which version it was... anyone know? Link to comment
Hans Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 According to the video information, it is by Roland Petit. Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 Here's a shocker: My favorite is Balanchine's, even tho it doesn't have a male variation (which I regret). I have to agree. When you compare Balanchine's version with the traditional text as it's performed by English companies, you realize that he wasn't choreographing in a vacuum. Balanchine's pas de deux is like a commentary on the original. A year ago Alastair Macaulay wrote: "Actually, though Balanchine did take considerable liberties with music and scenario, his proves closer to the original 1892 conception than almost any other." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/arts/dance/01nutc.html Here's the other thing I love. Apparently Hanya Holm would say that once a movement was initiated, it would continue in space along its trajectory to infinity. This idea is most clearly visualized in Alwin Nikolais' Tensile Involvement, but I also can't help think of it when watching the intersecting limbs in Balanchine's Nutcracker adagio. Link to comment
Jack Reed Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 I also agree with carbro, for her reason, in a general way: The Fedorova adagio begins well enough, but Tchaikovsky builds a crescendo we don't see. Where the ballerina makes a little hop on toe and raises an arm, facing her partner, the choreography and the music diverge, it seems to me. We may see something very authentic in these several clips (thanks again to Cristian for posting them), but don't we read somewhere that Petipa found himself with a dancer of limited ability to work with in the first place? Regardless of that, for my approach to theatrical-dance watching, at least, what I see ought to seem to derive in some intuitable way from what I hear, or at least relate to it more closely, and Balanchine's musical perception does it again here. Link to comment
Nanarina Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 Nureyev's version. Breathtaking! When he tossed Merle Park into the air - twice - I was in shock. His entire choreography was the best and most exciting that I've ever seen. Yes toeprints I too love Nureyevs version. That throw up into the air and the way he catches Merle Park was so spectacular, and cleanly executed. The final position when he supports her on his extended leg is quite something, he is rock solid and does not wobble or put his leg down quickly like some other Male partners do. Imagine the strain to hold the leg with the whole weight of the Ballerina along it and staying grounded. It is wonderful how it looks effortless. Link to comment
PeggyR Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Nureyev's version. Breathtaking! When he tossed Merle Park into the air - twice - I was in shock. His entire choreography was the best and most exciting that I've ever seen. The whole pas de deux looks fiendishly difficult, but the first 50 seconds or so -- simple, perfectly placed arabesques -- are stunning. If a solo dancer wobbles it's not nearly as noticeable as it would be with dancers in tandem like that. And the complementary lines of the two - exquisite. Link to comment
Helene Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 My favorite is the Balanchine, too. It was great to be able to contrast Lorna Feijoo and Jordan Elizabeth Long in the same (Fedorova) choreography. Long's sunny quality reminds me of a young Darci Kistler. Link to comment
Dr. Coppelius Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Mine is Peter Martins "Barbie", mostly because my daughter forced me to dance it with her so many times. Martins Barbie and Balanchine's Nutcracker Grand Pas De Deux are the ones that still bring tears in my eyes Maria Kowroski did Barbies dancing Link to comment
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